How many advertisements have you seen in your life? The average person sees between 280 and 310 advertisements per day. Advertisements are a great way to make people aware of products, issues, and more. But has advertising become a problem to society? Everyone has seen those ads where advertisers try to convince the consumer that a product will make your life five times better and their life won’t be better until they buy the product. The advertiser’s intentions are to try to get into your mind and influence your thoughts and decisions. Advertisements like car, insurance, medicine, beverage, and political commercials often try to influence the consumer. Advertising is harmful to society because of its strong influence.

Advertisements are everywhere people go. It’s nearly impossible to go anywhere without seeing an advertisement. It is hard to ignore the constant information being thrown at people every day. Advertisers grasp your attention with their ads and they tend to persuade you to look at it. They use big bold words, bright colors, and a lot of other “eye catching” effects. They know that the general population will eventually look at their advertisement, so that is when they bombard everyone with information no one really needs. The advertisers can also influence your thought subconsciously. For example, if a company is advertising a sports drink which portrays athletic, strong, and good-looking people. The consumer immediately thinks that this is a sports drink that they need to buy, but subconsciously they think that if they purchase the sports drink, they will be as athletic, strong, and good-looking as the people in the advertisement. Money is also a big problem in the advertising business. All the advertisers care about is money, how they’re going to get it, how much it’s going to cost, and how much they’re going to make. On average, advertisers make about $15 billion per year. They never really think about how all of society will be affected by what they are going to advertise. It’s also really tough to get an advertisement on television or a billboard, because the companies have to pay a large sum of money. People will do anything to get more money for their company and if that means having to pay more than another company to get the best billboard in town, then they will. The biggest problem is how it impacts society. Because so many people are influenced by advertisements, people end up spending more than they really have. Our society today wants things done fast and with high quality, so we are willing to give someone thousands of dollars for something even though it is not really worth it. Advertisements can make people take extreme measures as well. Most of the time in an advertisement, they tend to show the ideal person. Because of this, people have the desire to be like those people in the ads. They think that if they go to extreme measures, buy the product, do exactly what the person does, then they will be just like them. In reality that’s far from true, but because of the huge amount of influence advertisers are putting into their ads, people actually do believe it.

Some would say that all this advertising is how people make their money. That’s true, but the companies that are making all this money are putting a greater amount of the population in debt because people are spending money they do not have. Spending money is not just a personal choice. People can be pressured into purchasing something to either fit in or be just like someone else. The company plays a big role in influencing you to make that choice as to whether or not to spend your money on their product. All they show you is propaganda, which just means that they are spreading information that should not be relied on. Ads may not judge people but they do stereotype and pressure people. Those who are obese are typically shown eating enormous amounts of food and the elderly are mostly shown in denture commercials. In all reality, not all obese people eat enormous amounts of food and not all elderly people wear dentures. Advertisements pressure people to be the beautiful, healthy, strong, and amazing people that are shown in the advertisements. Advertising is harmful to society. They advertise all these amazing things you could become when they really end up messing up your life. You could end up spending more money than you really have, do things you would not normally do and more. Take a stand and don’t let advertising harm your life.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.